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For his latest jewelry heist, gangster boss George (Tom Georgeson) has
gathered an illustruous little band of misfits, his stuttering right hand
man Ken (Michael Palin), his American girlfriend Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis)
and Wanda's "brother" Otto (Kevin Kline), who's of course
anything but her brother. The heist goes a-ok as well, but then Wanda and
Otto rat out on George to divide the loot among themselves - but George
had the loot shipped to a safe place. But with him in prison, what's to
do? Wanda decides to get friendly with George's lawyer Archie (John
Cleese), to persuade him to persuade George do give away the location of
the loot - and Archie, stuck in a sparkless marriage, is very receptive to
her advances. And it seems like Wanda's starting to care for him as well -
much to the dismay of Otto, who more than once intervenes when they're
about to get intimate and this way also sabotages her plans to get Archie
to unwittingly work for them. But ultimately, George spills the beans of
the loot's whereabouts to Ken, and Ken really can't keep it to himself -
and once everybody knows, all hell breaks loose ... I will say
that much, A Fish Called Wanda, John Cleese's biggest success as a
leading man, does show a bit of a watered down version of the comic,
nothing in the film is as anarchistic as his Monty
Python shenanigans, nor is he nearly as (enjoyably) over the
top as in Fawlty Towers, to quote but his two previous
biggest successes. But that's not only a bad thing, as A Fish Called
Wanda is much more reminiscent of Ealing
comedies (if in more modern settings) from the 1950s (of which director
Charles Crichton did direct his fair share) than Cleese's own past
efforts, with its combination of clever dialogues, slightly raunchy
humour, and bits of slapstick, all carried by great character actors and
delivered in a very British sort of way with lots of understatement and
plenty of stiff upper lip. And the result is quite simply a comedy that's
next to impossible not to laugh about - which is all one ought to ask from
a comedy ...
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